CRAZY FROG MAKES RINGTONES CROAK

13-10-2006

Could we be seeing the imminent death ofthe ringtone? Let's hope so muses the Stirrer's media columnist Paul Bradshaw.

It seems that there was a reason for Crazy Frog's existence after all. According to figures released by Universal this week sales of ringtones have gone down and the finger is being pointed at the anthropomorphic amphibian.

Rob Wells, director of the new media division at Universal Music UK, is quoted as saying: “You can put it down to price, piracy and the Crazy Frog effect" - which is management-speak for: “We drove people insane, charged them a fortune for the privilege, and now we're paying for it.”

Of course you can't blame companies for milking a cash cow when they see one - some charged more for a 10-second ringtone than you'd pay for a four-track CD single, while Jamba - the company behind the Crazy Frogsound - didn't help themselves (or, more precisely, they literally did help themselves) by signing customers up to subscription services when they thought they were only buying a single ringtone.

Now it appears the boom is over, as more and more of us become reluctant to shell out significant sums for tones that sound like a robot spider trapped in a tin can - particularly when new mobile phones can record sounds directly, play thousands of mp3s, or copy ringtones from other phones via Bluetooth.

Given the typical buyer of the Crazy Frog ringtone, it may also be that this is simply a schoolyard fad that has had its day. Like hula hoops or Pokemon, the novelty of buying Pinky-and-Perky-style ringtones may be wearing off, and children are already moving on to the next big thing - recording their own ringtones perhaps?

Now there's a scary thought…

Useful links:

Rupert Murdoch pays out £100m to control the Crazy Frog

Kiss That Frog: Ring tones and the music industry

Blame the Crazy Frog: it may be all over for the ringtone revolution